The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1887-04-12
che 9aily 8allstim.
TUESDAY. APRIL -, 1887.
the LAST OF THE BUFFALoEs.
AN INDIAN RUMoR OF A LARGE HERD
IN AN oUT-oF-THE-wAY PLACE IN
MEXICO.

/ was told when / came here two
months ago that If l wanted to find
out what was trustworthy concerning
the determination of the buffalo,
Capt. Jack Bridges was the man to
see. As Bridges was then hunting
IN the Seralers Mountains in
Mexico, l took the cars to Gallego,
where, through the courtesy of II.
+. Comfort, Superintendent of the
Mexican Central Railroad Company,
1 was provided with an inoffensive
broncho to ride over to Bridges
camp, some thirty-eight miles.
Capt. Jack, who for many years
past has been one of the most dis
tnguished and fearless hunters in
the West, was the first man to make
a contract to provide large number
of buffalo hides. The idea suggested
itself to pelt-dealing firm in Leaven-
worth, Kan, who sent for Bridges,
telling him to procure 1920 hides at
once, as they wished to try them in
the English. market. Bridges signed
the contract, and hiring lot of
"skinners,,' began his destructive
warfare against the bison. In five
weeks and four days he killed with
his own hand LAB buffaloes, and
the hides of these animals consti-
tuted the first shipment of buffalo
robes to Europe. While the con-
tract was very lucrative, owing to
the great abundance of the animals,
the slaughter disguised Bridges,
who was natural-born sportsman,
so much that he refused TO be in
strumental in the future in any
wholesale destruction of good meat.
He says that he has only been sorry
but once for what he did, and that
has been always. Since then he has
killed about six thousand head, but
only when meat was required by the
different expeditions for which he
was guide. Having shot buffalo
from British Columbia to Texas, and
having lived for the last thirty-fve
years on the great game ranges of
the West, he is qualified to speak
authoritatively on the subject.
GAS far as l know" said Bridges
when talking on the subject, "and 1
try to keep myself posted, "there
are not over 600 buffalo left in the
United States. There are about 200
in the Yellowstone Park, and these
will be the sole survivors in year
or two. In the panhandle of Texas
there were about 100; these do not
include those on the ranch of Charley
Goodnight, who has a lot of them
semi-domesticated. Goodnight's
ranch is near Vernon in Armstrong
county. There are about 10 in
Kansas and the Indian Territory,
or 6 in Colorado, 10 in Montana,
and in Dakota. The others are in
little herd in an out-of-the-way
place, which I do not wish made
public.
"This, then, sums up the baffa-
loes left?"
eyes, though there may be
struggling pair or two in Southern
Texas. l am told that two old bulls
were seen south of San Antonio the
other day, and that they were fol-
lowed up and one killed. But have
been told twice recently, once by an
Apache, and, the other time by
Wacoe Indian, that on the big plains,
500 miles south of here, in a coun-
try but very rarely travelled, there is
very large herd. will know soon,
for am going down there this
spring. But the drought has been
so severe in Mexico this season that
the game has suffered terribly, and
has had to travel many miles for
water. = Ell Paso Corr. N. Y. Sun,
March 8.